The son of UkrainianJewish immigrants Annie and Nicholas Pritzker, he graduated from Chicago’s Schurz High School in 1913 and then graduated from Harvard Law School. He worked for a time in the family’s firm, Pritzker & Pritzker, before beginning with his brother Jack a business career that would launch a family empire.

They invested in real estate and small companies, mostly around Chicago Abram’s sons, Jay, Robert, and Donald, continued to grow the family business, eventually buying the Hyatt House hotel in San Francisco in 1957 and forming the cornerstone of their hotel chain. His son, Robert Pritzker, created a conglomerate of a multitude of manufacturing companies ,which grew into the multi billion dollar Marmon Group, and was diversified to include manufacturing concerns ranging from lumber to railroad box cars, and travel industry staples. On December 25th, 2007, it was announced that Warren Buffett, through Berkshire Hathaway, would purchase 60% of the Marmon Group from the Pritzkers for $4.5 Billion. The Pritzkers also own Royal Caribbean. TransUnion was a subsidiary of The Marmon Group until January 2005, but is now an independent, privately held company.

The Pritzker family also funds a charter school in the Hermosa Community of Chicago which is part of the noble network of charter schools. Pritzker College Prep is located at 4131 W. Cortland Avenue on the west side of Chicago.